9. Bedford Bedford closed in August of 2009. Hollywood celebrity chef Robert Noe Gadsby came to Houston with the Noe Restaurant concept, which was already a hit in the Los Angeles Omni Hotel. He parted ways with the Houston Omni and started Bedford restaurant in the Heights with local investors. The name was taken from the town in England where Gadsby grew up.
The gorgeous 5,500-square-foot restaurant was a bright idea conceived in the feverish delirium that gripped Houston when oil was $150 a barrel. Bedford opened in the fall of 2008, shortly after the mortgage crisis brought down the banking system. Its spirit of extravagance and ambitious culinary concepts was ill-suited to the mood of the time. Gadsby's investors fired the chef and sold the restaurant less than a year after it opened.
Other Notable Closings: La Strada, Bank by Jean-Georges, Wolfgang Puck Café and the Pig Stand.
